2012

My 12 in 2012 Review

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / Leave a comment

When I started blogging over a year ago I decided to attempt 12 “things” in 2012. Seeing that it’s now 2013 I thought I would update you on my list of the 12 things I attempted in 2012.

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A random list of 12 things I want to do in 2012.

  1. Write one blog per week……52 in total. Managed 229 posts in total.
  2. Read a non-child/parenting or non-physical activity book for fun: Where We Belong – Emily Giffin in August.
  3. Hike Cape Split with Toddler (and husband, of course) – not in 2012 as baby #2 is arrived in December.
  4. Cook ALL Vegan meals for 1 week (my husband is a vegan but I am not). Nope – didn’t happen. We had many vegan meals but not 3 per day for a full week  – maybe this year?!?!? Some of my favourite vegan meals this year: butternut squash soup, vegan pesto linguine, and pizza rolls.
  5. Go to a movie by myself. March 3rd – The Vow – good movie! I thought it would be kinda cheesy to go to a movie by myself but it was actually okay. I went in the afternoon, got lost in the movie and then had the rest of the evening to myself.
  6. Get 8 full hours of sleep (in a row) Amazing, Lilly slept all night, therefore I slept all night Jan 3rd 2012.
  7. Take advantage of my medical plan and get a massage. Friday February 10th – it was so great. I also went for 3 prenatal massages in the summer and fall – Ah-maz-ing!
  8. Invest in new runners (notice I did not say “buy”). May 19th 2012 – Asics purchased :)
  9. Start practicing Yoga (again). February 9th attending Yoga Flow. Yoga once a week at home (DVD).
  10. Weekend Camping Trip with family (toddler, husband and dog). Did not happen while pregnant. On the lis for this year.
  11. Run a 10k in 60 minutes or less (not necessarily in a race). Not in 2012 but I am committed to this for 2013.
  12. Promote Blog on various sites. You can see on my Media Page where I’ve guest blogged, had interviews, a few awards from fellow bloggers. Also, I’m a Sweat Pink Ambassador :)
Extra day in 2012, bonus goal: Write down weekly physical activity plan and stick to it.
Every week I wrote when I would work out and what I would do!

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Anyone have 13 things they are doing in 2013?

What about a monthly challenge?

Hilary’s Birth Story – Part 2

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 3 Comments

To get the first part of the story, check out Part 1 here.

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Hilary’s birth story – Part 2.

I started pushing as my body had decided it was time to get things moving on. This was by far way more painful than it was with Lilly. I later learned after Hilary was born that she was face up – which usually means major back pain and also more painful. I’m sure glad the waited to tell me that after she came out!

As each contraction started, I would suck back as much gas I as could and then push. For some reason I decided to hold on to the hospital bed railings above my head and was pulling down on them as hard as I could. Why? I don’t know, I guess I thought it would help me push the baby out. Well, the only thing it did was give me strained arm and back muscles for a week afterwards. Bad idea. With Lilly I held onto Sai’s index finger through each contraction – not this time, I think he was secretly thankful.

At one point in between contractions I remember giving everyone a thumbs up to say that I was doing okay and my thumb shook uncontrolably…I then said “this F#$%ing HURTS! They all had a good laugh. (Hurt was an understatement but they got the point).

I pushed for about an hour and then she was out and on my chest just like that at 3:07 am on Monday December 3rd. I looked at my husband and he said “it’s another girl”….and of course the tears started. I couldn’t believe how much she looked like Lilly – it was crazy.

We stayed in the delivery room (I forgot to mention this was the same room as with Lilly’s birth) until 6:30 am and then off we went to our private and extremely small/awkward room. We were all exhausted as we had no sleep since Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Hospital Room

Around 7, my husband decided to head home and get Lilly so she could meet her little sister. By 8:30 am, I decided it was a good time to get up and get moving around so we walked around the maternity ward a little and back to our room. I saw my husband and Dad and realised that Lilly was with them and I started to cry…

I couldn’t believe how emotional it was to see my big girl knowing that her life was about to change with the addition of her little sister. She was so excited to see us! HILARY, she shouted and gave Hilary her monkey. It was love at first sight for Lilly, an extremely proud big sister.

BIG sister Lilly

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Monday Dec 3rd

Lilly left the hospital with my Dad to head to the sitter’s as we wanted to keep things as normal as we could. She sure wasn’t happy about leaving us but managed to settle once she reached the sitter’s house. We on the other hand visited with my mother and father, tried to sleep a little, cuddle with our newborn and I took a shower. Oh my, that shower made me feel like a million bucks.

Monday night was a little more challenging than I had expected. We decided my husband would go home and help my Dad with Lilly and give her a little normality to her night and morning. I on the other had fed Hilary almost every hour from 7 pm until 2 am with no sleep in between. It was rough. The nurse ended up taking Hilary out of my room and cuddled with her so I could get an hour worth of sleep – that helped a lot. I did this again at 5:30 am for just over an hour. With Lilly we had to wake her every 3 hours to feed, pump etc because she was premature, however with Hilary it was feeding on demand which was a completely different concept and I don’t think I was prepared for her little cluster feeding session. We managed to live to tell the story 😉

Tuesday Dec 4th (my husband’s birthday)

My Doctor came by at 7 am to check things out and see how we were doing. She asked if we wanted to go home later that day after some blood work was completed or stay another night. I decided to go home. Again, with Lilly, we stayed in the hospital Sunday night until Friday afternoon – it was the longest week of my life and I did not enjoy being there so long. When I had the option to leave, I took it. We left around 2:30 pm on Tuesday and went to buy a birthday cake for my husband to celebrate his birthday and Hilary’s 🙂

Hilary going home

Hilary going home

Though this birth was longer and more painful it was completely worth it in the end. I had a natural birth, my family Doctor delivered, we had great nurses, my husband was there, Lilly was happy and safe with friends and family and we had a healthy 7 lbs 14 oz baby girl. It couldn’t have been a better experience.

Hilary Elise Dec 3rd 2012

Hilary Elise Dec 3rd 2012

The End.

Don’t forget to check back for my postpartum post in a few days.

Happy New Year!

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 2 Comments

Wow, hard to believe that another year is hours away!

2013, what will you bring us?

It’s been a great year for our family, lots of changes – good and bad.

A few things Piper’s Run was up to in 2012:

  • I was a single parent for 7 months while my husband was away in PEI. He was studying to become a Paramedic (Mission accomplished). Lilly and I made a few trips to beautiful PEI.

 

My top 3 favourite Motivation Monday’s:

Pinned Image

  • And, of course the arrival of our second daughter in December, Hilary Elise:

Hilary Dec 3rd 2012 - A

It’s been quite the year for our family and Piper’s Run. A big thank you to those who have followed us and commented on our posts. We are sure looking forward to 2013, setting new goals, running lots, trying new workouts and new adventure with our girls.

Happy New Year from Anna at Piper’s Run.

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Hilary’s Birth Story – Part 1

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 3 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything – sorry about that. It’s been a busy few weeks with our newborn, Christmas and having company from across the pond.

I feel like this could be a long-winded post, so I’ve decided to break it up in to a few parts and compare part from our first born’s birth too.

Welcome to Part 1.

Baby number 2 was due December 11th 2012, which also happens to be my sister’s birthday. And, our first daughter, Lillian (Lilly) was due on my birthday, July 10th 2010 – but she came 4 weeks early to all of our surprise.

I decided to finish work around 35 weeks pregnant and believe that was the best decision for me. I was able to rest a lot, get a few things done around the house and prepare for baby #2’s arrival.  Once we got past 36 weeks 2 days (the day we had Lilly), I was able to relax a little more and hope to make it to 37 weeks or term. And we did. We made it to 38 weeks 6 days before baby #2 arrived.

It’s amazing how much 2 weeks can make for a baby. Lilly was considered a premature baby and had a few challenges that we had to work through to get her to nurse properly. I’m not just talking a few days/weeks of challenges but more like 2.5 months to get her to latch/nurse properly with the help of a lactation consultant and a osteopath. With baby #2 it was like she was born to nurse – completely different.

Sai and Anna Dec 2nd 2012

Sai and Anna Dec 2nd 2012

Back to the birth.

On Sunday, December 2nd I was feeling a little frustrated and beyond exhausted from being pregnant. I had a little nap in the morning and then had lunch with Lilly and Sai. Once Lilly was down for a nap I was going to go shopping and get a few Christmas items we needed. As Sai was putting Lilly down for a nap I got up to go pee and thought I felt my water break! I surely wasn’t peeing myself but comparing it to my water breaking with Lilly, it wasn’t quite the same. This was around 1pm. At 2:30pm we went into the hospital after calling with my  symptoms – they just wanted to check me over. They couldn’t get a clear sample if my water had broken or not but I was clearly dilating – Was 4-5cm at 4:30pm. They admitted me.

Lilly was hanging out with our friends after her nap and then Grandad came to hang out with her for that night. She was in heaven and my Dad was too.

I figured we’d have the baby by 8:30/9pm as Lilly’s birth was extremely quick (less than 4 hours from my water breaking to her coming out). When 8:30 hit and I was only 6cm, I was rather discouraged and the pain was increasing fast.

Sai and I walked the hallways a lot and I sat on an exercise ball for a long time and then things started to get more painful. I really wanted a natural birth as I had one with Lilly and thought I could do it again. (Man OH MAN – talk about painful!!!).

There was a point when I just couldn’t handle the pain anymore but was confident I didn’t want an epidural or narcotics but was thinking about the “laughing” gas as an alternative. As the contractions grew stronger and more painful I was convinced I wanted the gas and made Sai go tell the nurse that I wanted it. It arrived not too long after and on went the mask when I had a contraction.

Nothing happened 😦

I was expecting to have a little relief of pain but it didn’t happen. So, I kept at it. Inhaling the gas like it was the most enjoyable product known to man kind. After about 5-6 contractions and inhaling the gas, I felt extremely light-headed and sort of fell back in my seat. Ahhhhhhhhh, it was working. I felt a little drugged/drunk as the nurse described I could be. She was right.

My water still had not broken at this point and the contractions were getting closer and closer and MORE painful. Seriously, how more painful can it get – apparently a lot more.

My Doctor arrived at the hospital around 12:30 am and we started discussing my options. At 1:45 am and 8 cm dilated, I decided to have my water broken. All I remember is how warm it was, my contractions still painful and the gas permanently stuck in my left hand for when I needed it.

All of a sudden, it was time to push. I had to push, I couldn’t hold back…this baby was ready to come out and join us.

To be continued….